The birth of the Latin Studies Center in October 2009 carries out within the Holy Spirit University of Kaslik a unique Lebanese project.
The increasing interest in the Latin language, encouraged by the achievement of a certain number of projects, legitimizes in fact the institutionalization of the whole work on Latin texts. The studies, historical as well as literary, may consist of translations and aim at the same time at organizing various activities, such as visits, conferences and colloquiums.
The Latin Studies Center, managed by Dr. Mireille Issa, projects on the long term, a more ambitious work schedule consisting of:
- The establishment of an adequate bibliographic collection. Work can be achieved on the corpus available in Lebanon as well as on texts found in occidental libraries.
- The establishment of stylistic studies, distinguishing Maronite writers of Latin expression and occidental writers, and list as well the different speech stereotypes called “maronite”, such as exordiums and perorations, greeting and humility expressions, etc…
- The management of large translation projects with historical themes consisting of big names, periods or even events.
The Latin Studies Center hosted Prof. Denise Aigle, historian of Muslim Orient, Director of studies at the EPHE and researcher at the National Center of Scientific Research, to present a conference entitled “The Correspondences between the Great Khans of Mongolia and the Ilkhans with the Papacy: the Role of the Latin Language”. This conference was held on Thursday, March 18, 4:30 p.m. at the USEK Conference Hall.